Post office campaigners joined by MPs
CAMPAIGNERS from across Cornwall last night staged a rally
to fight threatened post offices closures in the county.
-
The rally at Shire Hall, Bodmin, included speeches by postmasters and mistresses, local campaigners and parliamentary candidates
Postmasters and mistresses, Liberal Democrat MPs and
prospective parliamentary candidates teamed up with campaigners
from around the county at the protest, which marked the end of
a six-week consultation period into cuts to the post office
service.
Forty-nine branches are to close in the county with 13 more
being replaced with a mobile service.
Campaigners last night said there was a widespread feeling
in Cornwall that the evidence in the case for closing post
offices was flawed and said the consultation was based on
partial information such as bus timetables which could change
at any time.
The rally, at the Shire Hall in Bodmin, was chaired by Lord
Teverson, former MEP for Cornwall and included speeches by
postmasters and mistresses, local campaigners and parliamentary
candidates. More than 60 people turned out for the event.
It was organised by the Lib-Dems after demands from local
people, who wanted an explanation why certain branches were to
close. Julia Goldsworthy, MP for Falmouth and Camborne, said
people had turned out from throughout the county to support the
campaign and show a united front.
She said the meeting was scheduled on a bank holiday to
enable local postmasters and mistresses to attend.
She added: "I think it was a really constructive meeting. As
a community, people are united against closures and Government
policy that will rip the heart out of so many of our
communities in Cornwall."
She added that Lib-Dem MPs were supporting Cornwall County
Council's judicial review and would be asking the Speaker of
Parliament for a recall.
Cornwall County Council has begun the process for a judicial
review of the controversial proposals and is calling on the
Post Office Ltd to abandon the consultation exercise and delay
making decisions until a new fair and lawful consultation
exercise has been carried out. Ms Goldsworthy said: "I would
try to demonstrate how flawed the entire process has been."
Sixty-two post offices have been earmarked for closure in
Cornwall by Post Office Ltd, with 13 set to become outreach
services or mobile post offices and a further 45 post office
branches are threatened with closure in Devon. The consultation
period started on July 15 and was extended an extra week to
allow for the summer holiday period, ending on September 1.
At two other meetings last week, hundreds of angry people
lambasted Post Office officials, urging closure proposals to be
axed. More than 150 people crammed into Budock Village Hall and
two hours later, scores of people packed Falmouth Rugby Club to
protest at plans to shut post offices at Killigrew Street and
Bar Road in Falmouth and at Flushing.
Yesterday, the Western Morning News reported the slow
strangulation of village life is set to continue after
predictions that thousands more village shops could close.
The Rural Shops Alliance believes recent plans to shut 2,500
post offices across the country, including 150 in Devon and
Cornwall, will be followed by numerous voluntary closures,
including struggling post offices and allied shops that had
been holding on long enough for generous settlement packages,
but were not part of the Post Office Ltd cull.
3 Comments
by James, Cornwall
Tuesday, August 26 2008, 10:36PM
“The Post Office closure programme started 30 years ago. 3,500 were closed under the last Tory government. So, its not a new process.
The village Post Office, shop and pub etc will certainly close if they are not sufficiently used. If they were supported by all those people making noises now, then we would not have any closures.
It is a well known fact that many people are in this protest bandwagon purely for political reasons and have never set foot in a Post Office. No, they preferred to hop into their 4x4 and head for the superstore. Ask any Postmaster!.”
by Roger Pooley, Trelash
Tuesday, August 26 2008, 2:58PM
“After attending last night¿s Bodmin meeting, it has become even clearer that the upshot of post office closures will be a continuation of what happened when I was a young boy. Beeching came along and axed our railways. This led to an increase in road transport which has already contributed to rising CO2 emissions. In rural areas which lack any form of public transport infrastructure, it looks as though Brown is about to do the same.
Why should an area such as North Cornwall, with its 435 square miles suffer so disproportionately? Access criteria stipulate that 95% of the total rural population should be within 3 miles of a post office. It seems to me that with 25 of the 62 proposed closures throughout the County, North Cornwall has the lion¿s share of the unlucky 5% whose equal rights are being totally ignored.
The ¿Lady¿ may not have been for turning but let us hope that Mr Brown is man enough to admit that he is wrong to pursue this relentless path of destroying rural communities.”
by Michaela Dungate, Laneast
Tuesday, August 26 2008, 2:06PM
“As one of the thirty-strong delegation from Altarnun, complete with our grim reaper, it is no wonder Cornwall¿s voice is largely unheard. Our consultation period was neatly and cynically timed to coincide, not only with parliamentary recess but also with the peak of the summer tourist season and a time of traditionally high levels of farming and land management activity.
The fragmentary approach of closures region by region has virtually ensured that the nation as a whole has not banded together to make Post Office Ltd closure an issue for national concern.
We were told that the selection of communities to have their services axed was computer driven and based on inaccurate and outdated 2001 Census data. Furthermore, one MP suggested that the resulting reduction in Post Office Ltd expenditure this time round would be a mere drop in the ocean, So it was not even a question of saving money.
Given the cost of Mr Brown¿s ill-fated but now reversed 10p tax decision, surely serious consideration needs to given to reversing the entire national closure programme.
We do not want a stay of execution from our grim reaper; rather we demand a change of policy on this vital issue, which will have dire repercussions for the whole nation.”